NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service Lifts Environmental Assessments for Oil Roads, Pipelines The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to change the environmental review process for oil and gas exploration and development projects under federal lease in national forests and grasslands. The proposal would allow local forest and grassland units to use a categorical exclusion when approving surface uses, such as road access, drill pad construction and pipeline installation, for oil and gas exploration and development under federal lease. The Service says the proposal would "reduce unnecessary red tape and delay while keeping environmental protection for national forests and grasslands." "Our forest managers have reviewed similar oil and gas projects over the last five years and have learned that projects of this scale do not carry significant environmental effects to human health or the environment," said Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. "This proposal is a result of that review as well as the agency's commitment to energy conservation in our national forest and grasslands." Projects under this proposed regulation could not include more than up to a mile each of new and reconstructed road, three miles of pipeline and four drill sites. Currently, these types of projects require an environmental assessment (EA) or environmental impact statement (EIS), which can take six months or longer to complete....
Senate drops changes to mining law A change in federal mining law that opponents feared would open millions of acres of public land in the West to development is dead for this year. The sponsor of the change, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., conceded defeat after senators told him his provision would violate Senate rules against passing major new legislation as part of the budget reconciliation bill, which is just supposed to make changes in spending. "I remain committed to modernizing the mining law to meet our 21st Century needs," said Gibbons. The provision, part of the House budget spending bill, would have lifted an 11-year-old ban on the "patenting" or sale of public land that is being mined and further allows the owner to develop the property for homes or other uses once the minerals are gone. Gibbons had said his intent was only to help some Nevada communities develop areas where the mines had played out. The House Resource Committee staff said it would only immediately affect 360,000 acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property where mining is underway....
Judge bars U.S. from wild-horse roundup A federal judge on Tuesday barred the U.S. Forest Service from rounding up hundreds of wild horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and selling them for slaughter. U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Martone wrote that the Forest Service argument that it didn't have to comply with laws governing wild horses because the animals in question strayed onto the forest after the 2002 "Rodeo-Chediski" forest fire and were domesticated hadn't been proven. In fact, Martone wrote, the government's arguments and its lawyers' statements showed that it didn't consider whether the horses were covered by the wild-horse law before ordering them rounded up and sold. Three animal rights groups - the Animal Welfare Institute, In Defense of Animals and the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros - brought the suit, joined by two individuals....
Battle erupts over Crystal mine The government has accused one of the last miners in Pitkin County of putting historic artifacts and natural resources at risk by rooting around an old mine in the shadow of Mount Sopris. But miner Robert Congdon counters that it is the U.S. Forest Service that is being irresponsible by letting items like ore cars, rails and hand tools rot without making an effort at historic preservation. He claims he was acting within his rights and with good intentions. The dispute is over the Maree Love mine, tucked in a minor drainage in the Crystal Valley. Congdon rediscovered the abandoned mine in the early 1980s even though its three adits, or passageways, had collapsed. His research showed it was probably established as a gold mine in the late 1880s, then converted to a lead mine. Iron oxides were pulled out as late as the 1950s....
Animal rights duo guilty in Sabino case Two animal activists affiliated with Earth First were convicted Tuesday on one felony and two misdemeanor counts related to their March 2004 disruption of a mountain lion hunt in Sabino Canyon. Rodney Coronado, 39, of Tucson, and Matthew Crozier, 33, of Sedona, could be imprisoned for more than six years if maximum sentences are imposed. Coronado is a convicted arsonist and well-known spokesman for forceful action on behalf of animal rights and environmental causes.
Crozier joined Coronado in spreading false scents and pulling up a sensor and trap during a hunt for problem lions in the then-closed canyon. After the verdict, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Klein- dienst said Coronado is "a danger to the community."....
Study Shows Forests Thrive With Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels Forest productivity may be significantly greater in an atmosphere enriched with carbon dioxide, according to findings released today that challenge recent reports that question the importance of carbon dioxide fertilization. The study, funded primarily the DOE's Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research and the National Science Foundation, was performed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 10 other institutions in the United States and Europe. Their work revealed a strong relationship between productivity of forest plots in the current atmosphere and productivity in plots experimentally enriched with carbon dioxide. "The median response indicated a 23 percent increase in productivity in the future atmosphere," said ORNL's Rich Norby, lead author of the paper to be published Dec. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "What was especially surprising to the research team was the consistency of the response across a wide range of productivity."....
Parties eye new swap plan A hotly debated proposal to trade public land in the mountains near Wheatland for private lands at Devil's Canyon in northern Wyoming will be re-evaluated and a new proposal crafted by stakeholders interested in balancing public benefits and losses. The decision was made after two days of talks between Pat Broe, who is proposing the exchange, and Bill Bookout, a neighboring rancher and spokesman for those opposing the exchange, and members of the Platte County Resource District. Broe wants to trade about 3,000 acres he controls near Devil's Canyon by Lovell to the Bureau of Land Management. In return, he wants about 5,000 acres of mostly U.S. Forest Service lands next to his Notch Peak Ranch near Wheatland. In addition, Broe would turn over about 800 acres in three separate chunks in Platte and Albany counties to federal land agencies. As Broe took his idea before the public, he garnered support in northern Wyoming and hearty opposition in southern Wyoming, where people would suffer a net loss of public lands. Bookout owns property near Notch Peak Ranch and has become an unofficial spokesman for the opposition....
Lawsuit attacks salmon listings A California property rights group has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Endangered Species Act listings for salmon in four Western states, claiming the government is playing a “shell game’’ with hatchery and naturally spawned fish by counting only the natural population to determine listings. The Pacific Legal Foundation, based in Sacramento, also claims the salmon listings damage the Western economy by driving up prices and cutting jobs in farming and agriculture, along with other industries, including construction and transportation. “This policy is an insult to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods are being held hostage by needless regulations to protect fish that aren’t endangered,’’ said Russell Brooks, the managing attorney for the foundation’s office in Seattle. Brian Gorman, spokesman for NOAA Fisheries in Seattle, said the agency cannot comment on a pending lawsuit. But he defended NOAA policy on wild and hatchery salmon in general, noting that the Pacific Legal Foundation won a ruling in 2001 by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene that required fishery managers to consider hatchery salmon numbers when determining whether to list wild stocks as threatened or endangered. “The court clearly told us we had to account for hatchery fish,’’ Gorman said. “But at no point did the court say that hatchery fish and natural spawners were a one-to-one correspondence.’’....
Two lawsuits tackle NW salmon issues Oregon came under attack Tuesday in a lawsuit seeking to undo the state's river standards as inadequate for salmon and to have the federal government do the job instead. At the same time, the U.S. government came under attack in a separate lawsuit Tuesday that contends federal officials wrongly consider many salmon species imperiled when abundant hatchery-born fish make them plentiful. Protection for salmon that do not need it unnecessarily drives prices up and costs the region jobs, the group behind the lawsuit claims. The legal actions underscore the high stakes surrounding a federal salmon recovery program with costs reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Depending on their success, the suits could affect activities from logging to the operation of hydroelectric dams -- possibly making them easier or tougher....
Hunter reports shooting of yearling wolf The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the apparent accidental shooting of a wolf near Cody by a local man. "I had a local resident call me and tell me he thought he killed a wolf," said Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Tim Eicher. "The individual was out coyote hunting and mistakenly shot a wolf." Eicher declined to release the name of the hunter, saying the incident was still under investigation. He said no charges have been filed, and he will forward his report to Assistant U.S. Attorney John Barksdale in Casper, who will determine what charges, if any, are appropriate. Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973....
Critical habitat for black bears rule draws fire A group with a mission to save the threatened Louisiana black bear has joined the fight against efforts to set aside legally protected land for the animal, saying the move would add needless bureaucracy that could slow the bear's recovery. The Black Bear Conservation Committee -- a coalition of landowners, government agencies and conservation groups -- has filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a lawsuit over the agency's failure to designate "critical habitat" for the black bear. The University of Denver Environmental Law Clinical Partnership filed the lawsuit in September, seeking to force the federal government to make the designation, a move that some landowner's fear would take away their rights to use property as they wish. The black bear already receives protection under the Endangered Species Act, but a critical-habitat designation would add a layer of review for projects that are carried out on federal land, need a federal permit or receive federal funding....
Environmentalists to appeal border fence ruling Environmental activists vowed on Tuesday to appeal a ruling by a San Diego federal judge allowing the United States to finish building a fence along the border with Mexico despite concerns that it would threaten a wildlife habitat. The Department of Homeland Security won the right on Monday to finish the remaining 5 miles of the border fence in southern California by invoking a little-known federal law that allows the agency to waive state and federal environmental laws in the name of security. "This isn't just about trees, plants and birds," said Cory Briggs, who represents the environmental activists. "This is about setting the Constitution on fire." Briggs sued the federal government in February 2004 on behalf of the Sierra Club, the San Diego Audubon Society, San Diego Baykeeper, the California Native Plant Society, the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association and the Center for Biological Diversity....
C.A. Revives Pacific Lumber Plan for Logging On North Coast The First District Court of Appeal yesterday overturned a Humboldt Superior Court ruling that had struck down Pacific Lumber Co.’s state-approved 100-year logging plan. Presiding Justice Barbara J.R. Jones, writing for Div. Five, said the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection made an adequate showing that the plan, which allows the company to harvest timber on approximately 211,000 acres in Humboldt County, would protect endangered species and watersheds. The logging plan arose from a deal between Maxxam Incorporated, which acquired Pacific Lumber in 1986, and the state and federal governments. Under the 1996 agreement, brokered by Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the company agreed to sell the Headwaters Forest, 7,500 acres of environmentally sensitive old-growth redwoods, to the government in exchange for permission to log its remaining acreage. That permission, in turn, was conditioned upon preservation of habitat for the imperiled marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl, prevention of excessive logging and protection of streams....
Global Warming Is the 'Real Thing,' Says Ad Featuring Polar Bears "Polar bears may soon be extinct because of global warming." That's the message from Greenpeace USA, which is launching a national television advertising campaign to raise awareness of the polar bear's "plight." Greenpeace said the 30-second ad, featuring a "polar bear mother and cub cuddling on ice," is intended to remind viewers of the popular holiday ad featuring polar bears drinking Coca-Cola. Greenpeace said its ad coincides with the filing of a federal lawsuit seeking to place polar bears on the endangered species list. According to Greenpeace, the polar bear may become the first mammal to make the endangered species list because of global warming. The ad says the pack ice where polar bears live is melting because the earth's temperature is warming....
Column: Trouble with the ESA is us With House approval of his "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act" last September, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., got a step closer to his career goal of eradicating the Endangered Species Act. Pombo, a developer posing as a rancher posing as an advocate of the public good, proclaims that the 32-year-old law is "broken" and a "failure." Such talk infuriates Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited's federal advocacy coordinator, who helped procure the last reauthorization of the ESA in 1988. "We don't enforce the Clean Water Act aggressively enough," he declares. "We weaken federal lands laws to cut more forests. We don't bother to update a federal mining law from the 1800s. We don't make the Magnuson Act conserve marine fish. We don't provide adequate funding for federal and state wildlife programs. On and on and on. We put a huge burden on the ESA, and then some have the nerve to blame it." Only nine -- or less than 1 percent -- of the species protected by the ESA have gone extinct; 68 percent are stable or recovering. Not a bad record, but nothing close to what it could be. The ESA has never failed; we have; and the only thing "broken" is its application....
Woman suspected in several ecoterror cases A woman charged with damaging a transmission tower also is suspected in half a dozen other ecoterror crimes, including a firebombing at a Colorado ski resort, one of the costliest such crimes in the U.S. Chelsea Gerlach was ordered held without bail after Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdahl made the allegations against her. Federal public defender Craig Weinerman argued that the evidence against Gerlach was meager. Gerlach, 28, was among six people arrested in five states last week on indictments alleging they set fires and damaged property between 1998 and 2001 in Oregon and Washington. The Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front took responsibility for most of the crimes. Gerlach, of Portland, is charged with helping two others topple a Bonneville Power Administration high-tension line 25 miles east of Bend in 1999. Engdahl said he will present evidence to a grand jury Wednesday seeking indictments against Gerlach in a 1999 meatpacking fire in Eugene and a 2001 firebombing at a tree farm in Clatskanie. The prosecutor also said Gerlach is suspected in the 1998 firebombing of the ski resort at Vail, Colo. Four buildings and four chairlifts at the top of the mountain were damaged or destroyed, and damages were set at $12 million....
Some Kane County residents don't like officials' road stance Call it the Kane mutiny. Some Kane County residents have posted a petition voicing their displeasure with their County Commission's efforts to claim ownership of specific rural roads, many of which cross public lands in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. "There are a lot of locals - even some who ride [all-terrain vehicles] - who are not pleased with the county's road [position]," area activist Sky Chaney said Tuesday. "They're holding their cards close to their chests because they don't want to be bullied." Chaney and a "group of concerned citizens" published a guest editorial in the Dec. 7 edition of Kanab's Southern Utah News challenging the commission's stand. A nonbinding petition also popped up at a Kanab outdoor shop. Organizers plan to present the signatures - at least 60 so far - to commissioners....
Drilling plan calls for water re-injection Companies proposing to drill 2,000 coal-bed methane wells in southern Wyoming are willing to re-inject production water into the ground, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM has released a draft environmental impact statement for the project involving Anadarko Petroleum and partners in the Atlantic Rim area between Rawlins and Baggs. The companies propose to drill 166 re-injection wells to handle the water produced along with the coal-bed methane. “That’s a good step in the right direction,” said Erik Molvar of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, a conservation group based in Laramie. Re-injection of saline waters will address most but not all water problems, he added. Muddy Creek has some rare native fish species, so best management practices will be needed on road construction and maintenance to protect water quality, he said....
Groups push directional drilling While conservationists are pleased that energy companies plan to re-inject coal-bed methane water in the Atlantic Rim area of southern Wyoming, they say they're concerned about other parts of the project. They say Anadarko Petroleum and its partners, which plan to drill 2,000 wells in the area, should consider use of directional drilling techniques. “They’re still relying on conventional, vertical drilling, which maximizes the footprint disturbances of the project,” said Erik Molvar of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. A better solution, he said, is directional drilling, which has been successfully done by the CDX company in a nearby field. That would reduce the footprint of drill pads to one for every two square miles, he said. Dave Simon, the BLM project leader, said the stratified nature of the coal beds under the Atlantic Rim area didn’t lend itself to directional drilling. The proposed Atlantic Rim project area encompasses about 485 square miles or 270,080 acres -- 173,672 acres of which are federal surface, 14,060 acres which are state lands, and 82,348 acres that are private surface....
Earth's uneasy breathing measured on Niwot Ridge Searching for signs of global climate change in nature goes beyond studies of receding mountain glaciers, thinning Arctic sea ice, shifting tree lines or quirky animal behavior. Invisible gases trapped in glass flasks also have a story to tell. Samples of thin mountain air collected on this windswept crest west of Boulder, and gases monitored continuously with tower-mounted sensors in the forest 1,500 feet below, are revealing nature's responses to a warming world, climate scientists say. Some of the trends Colorado scientists have spotted could be bad news for the future health of the state's mountain forests, they say. Analyzing the chemical fingerprint of forest and mountaintop gases is like holding a giant stethoscope to the planet and hearing its every heartbeat and breath. And some of the planet's vital signs are wavering....
Snow sleds OK for elk, study finds Most elk, bison and trumpeter swans barely reacted last winter to the presence of snowcoaches and snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, according to a study released Tuesday. Scientists watched more than 2,100 interactions between over-snow vehicles and wildlife last year to try to determine how they responded. Of those, 81 percent of the animals had no apparent response or they looked and then resumed what they were doing, the study said. The research is part of a larger debate over the use of snowmobiles and snowcoaches in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Opponents of snowmobile use - along with previous Park Service studies - have raised concerns about the effects of the machines in winter when wildlife are stressed by weather and scarcer food supplies. The study, intended to help park officials draw up a long-term plan for winter activity in Yellowstone, suggested that most elk and bison can become habituated to the machines over time....
Calif. senators object to plan to give military Santa Rosa Island California's two senators objected Tuesday to a plan by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to transfer a 53,000-acre National Park island off the coast of California to the military as a recreation retreat. Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer sent a letter to the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee criticizing as "premature and rash" Hunter's plan to include the transfer of the island in a pending defense bill. Hunter's amendment would give the military control of Santa Rosa Island, 40 miles off the coast of California, effective Jan. 1, 2009, as a "morale, welfare and recreation operation" for members of the Armed Forces, dependents, veterans, guests and others. The island also would be available for use as a training area for special operations forces....
Tamarisk targeted to save water Water managers in the seven states that rely on the Colorado River, looking for ways to conserve water in a supply already stressed by growth and drought, believe they can create more reliable drought buffers by targeting the biggest water wasters. Eradicating invasive plant species was among the less-traditional ideas mentioned in drought response proposals submitted by the states to Interior Secretary Gale Norton earlier this year. At the top of the species list is the tamarisk, a nonnative tree that, by some estimates, robs the Colorado River of as much as 500,000 acre-feet a year, or nearly twice Nevada's annual river allocation. Tamarisk plants thrive in riverbeds with low water flows and spread quickly, creating dense thickets that make removal difficult. They also create wildfire risks when they dry out....
Rancher struggles to corral roaming buffalo in western MN With wranglers on snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, a group of western Minnesotans worked Tuesday to corral a loose herd of about 75 buffalo. But by evening, the herd was still on the loose. "They are trying to get them corralled back to their place, but they are having no luck," Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said early Tuesday afternoon. "They got them going pretty good, but then they just stopped. Every now and then they charge you because they don't want to be chased." Bergquist said his deputies kept an eye on things and controlled traffic when the herd moved over roads, but the buffalo's owner and his friends staffed the drive. Officials hoped to keep the bison from Interstate 94. Bergquist was skeptical the effort would work until the unruly buffalo decided to cooperate. "Hopefully, once they get so hungry and thirsty they will go back to where they get their food," he said....
A Virus Stalks the Henhouse Andrew Carlson cupped a day-old chick in his palm as a sea of 25,000 yellow fluff balls peeped and pecked around him. Placing the chick on the ground, he checked automated food and temperature controls in the cavernous henhouse west of Modesto, then returned to his truck and unzipped his full-body biosecurity suit. Instinctively, Carlson reached for a bottle in the door pocket, squirted a dollop of clear gel into his calloused hand and rubbed it in. "Farmers using hand sanitizers," he said. "Crazy, huh?" In the age of bird flu, the ideal poultry or egg farm would be more controlled than a prison, more sanitary than a hospital and more remote than a desert island. Reality is not far off. The new tools of the trade are locked gates, visitor logs and antiviral truck washes. Failure to wear biosecurity gear is a firing offense....